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as a preliminary to copyright protec- 
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HOW THE BISHOP BUILT HIS 
COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 




The Western Literary pRESs.CiNciNi NAT!. 






U8RARY of CONGRESS 


Two Copies Received 


JUL 6 1906 


Copyright Entry 


CLASS XXc. No. 


COPY B. 



Copyright 1906 by John James Piatt. 



3\JLC.^ ^jJ^/JyW UooyJvLaV^ OW ^ 



Priuted by W. E. Taylor, 

HARRISON, O. 



k 



This Little Book 

tells the story of a really heroic 
episode in the history of education: 
that of the founding of Kenyon 
College at Gambler by The Right 
Reverend Philander Chase, D. Dc, 
the first Bishop of Ohio. 



o 





o 






HOW THE BISHOP BUILT HIS 
COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 



I. 

THE PIONEER BISHOPRIC AND FARM-HOUSE 
SEMINARY 

Vy^ORTHINGTON, on the Olen- 
tangy, five or six miles north 
of Columbus, is one of the oldest and 
most venerable towns in Ohio. It 
was founded in 1803, by Colonel (also 
the Reverend) James Kilbourne, of 
Connecticut. When I last visited 
the place, many years ago, a large 
two-storied brick building, noisy with 
a public school, was pointed out, 
across the public square, as that in 
which the Rev. Philander Chase con- 
7 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

ducted an academy, after he first 
made his home at Worthington in 
1817. This was one of several houses 
built about the year 1808, and stands 
a little north of St. John's Church, 
doubtless one of the first church- 
buildings of any pretentions erected 
for the use of the Episcopal Church 
west of the Allegheny mountains. 

Those who have read Bishop 
Chase's autobiography will recall the 
story of his coming to Ohio, as told 
in that work. He came as a mission- 
ary, leaving his family to follow him, 
and made the journey from Hartford, 
Connecticut, (where he gave up a 
pleasant home and associations for 
the hardships and privations of a 
new country) during the winter of 
1816-17. From Buffalo (then a small 
village) westward was an almost un- 
broken wilderness. On the southern 
shore of Lake Erie no line of public 
travel had yet been established, and 
8 




BISHOP CHASK 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

the small lake vessels were the only 
means of common conveyance. But, 
when Mr. Chase reached Buffalo by 
stage coach from Canandaigua, weeks 
would have yet to pass before the 
opening of navigation, and the pros- 
pect of delaj^ was insupportable to a 
man of his eager disposition. Private 
travel upon the ice of Lake Erie was 
still kept up, but as the season Vv^as 
far advanced, this had begun to be 
looked upon as dangerous. While 
inquiring, however, as to the means 
of going forward, he happened to 
see, as he tells us, ^'a man standing 
upright in his sled, with the horses' 
heads facing the lake.'' Here was 
the mioment's opportunity, and he 
took it. He learned that the mian 
v/as going twelve miles up the lake, 
and at once engaged to go v/ith liim 
that distance, trusting to Providence 
for further progress. As Mr. Chase 
seated himself, with trunk and port- 
9 



HOTV THE BISHOP BUILT 

manteau, in the farmer's sled, a gen- 
tleman named Hibbard, with port- 
manteau in hand, begged the same 
privilege. At the end of the twelve 
miles they were so fortunate as to 
find another man who promised to 
take them twenty-five miles further 
to Cattaraugus Creek, and this dis- 
tance was passed over before night. 
Here, however, they found neither 
house nor shelter, but for an extra 
payment they prevailed upon the 
same person to carry them to a 
house known as Mack's Tavern, 
where they hired a horse and cutter 
to take them to the Four Corners, a 
place within twenty-five miles of the 
Pennsylvania State line. Mr. Chase's 
description of this part of his jour- 
ney is graphic and striking. He 
says in his autobiography: ''It w^as 
sunrise ere we set off. In getting 
out upon the lake, we had to pass 
between several mounds of ice, and 
10 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

sometimes to climb over large cakes, 
which had been thrown up together 
by the force of the winds and waves. 
But the driver knew his v/ay, and 
our horse w^as rough-shod, and the 
cutter was strong and well built. 
The scene before us, as v/e cam.e out 
from among the mounds of ice, v/as 
exceedingly brilliant, and even sub- 
lime. Before us, up the lake, was a 
level expanse of glassy ice, from two 
to three miles wide, between two 
ranges of ice-mountains, all stretch- 
ing parallel v/ith the lake shore and 
with one another, as far as the eye 
could extend, till they were lost in 
the distance. On this expanse and 
on these mountains, on the icicles, 
which hung in vast quantities and in 
an infinite variety of shapes from 
the rocky, lofty and sharp-angled 
shore on the left, the rising sun was 
pouring his beams. Light and shade 
were so distinct, brilliancy and dark- 
11 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

ness were in such proximity, and yet 
so blended, as to produce an effect of 
admiration and praise to the great 
Creator never before experienced. 
It would be in vain to express them 
here. What added to the adoring 
gratitude to God, for having made 
all things with such consummate 
skill and splendor, was what ap- 
peared as we rode along between 
these mountains of ice, manifesting 
God's providential goodness, which 
v/ent hand in hand with His power 
and wisdom. The bald-headed eagles 
sat on these mountains of ice, with 
each a fish in his claw, fresh and 
clean, as if just taken from the limpid 
lake. What noble birds! How deli- 
cious their repast! 'Whence do they 
obtain these fish at this inclement 
season?' said the writer. 'They get 
them,' said the driver, 'from the top 
of the ice. These were thrown up 
and deposited by the winds and 
12 



HT8 COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

waves in the storms of last winter, 
and being immediately frozen, have 
been kept till this spring, when 
the sun thaws them out for the 
eagles and ravens, which, at this sea- 
son, have nothing else to feed on.' 
As the driver told this simple story 
of the fish, and the storms and the 
eagles, how clearly appeared the 
providential goodness of God. ^And 
will not He who feedeth the eagles 
and the ravens, which He hath made 
to depend on His goodness, feed and 
support and bless a poor, defenseless, 
solitary missionary, who goeth forth, 
depending on His mercy, to preach 
His Holy Word, and to build up His 
Church in the wilderness?' There 
was an answer of faith to this ques- 
tion more consoling than if the 
wealth of the Indies had been laid 
at his feet.'' 

After some further experiences on 
the ice, the travelers reached Con- 
13 



HOW TEE BISHOP BUILT 

neaut Creek (now Salem}, Ohio, 
whence Mr. Chase made the rest of 
his journey alone, chiefly on horse- 
back — preaching wherever he found 
scattered members of his Church on 
the road — reaching Worthington 
early in May, where he at once 
wrote to his wife, directing her to 
meet him at Cleveland, then a small 
village, in the middle of June. 

Mr. Chase was elected Bishop of 
of Ohio in June of the following year 
(1818), and consecrated at Philadel- 
phia on the eleventh of February, 
1819. He had meanwhile settled at 
Worthington, purchasing several lots 
fronting upon the public square, and 
a farm of one hundred and fifty 
acres, half a mile below, on the Co- 
lumbus road — the old Sandusky pike 
— ^where he made his home. With 
the exception of about two years 
spent in Cincinnati as President of 
the Cincinnati College, and a year's 
14 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

absence in England, Bishop Chase 
continued to reside upon this farm 
until the year 1828, and his farm- 
house, for two years after the incor- 
poration of that institution, was to 




THK FIRST BISHOP'S PAI^ACK IN OHIO 



all intents and purposes Kenyon Col- 
lege—it having been at first de- 
signed, according to the arrange- 
ment made wath the beneficiaries in 
England, to establish the college up- 
on the Bishop's Worthington farm. 
15 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

The life of an Ohio Bishop in those 
early days was not what would now 
be thought an enviable one. During 
the year 1820, Bishop Chase, in vis- 
iting the infant parishes of his dio- 
cese, traveled on horseback tv/elve 
hundred and seventy-one miles. His 
services were meanwhile for the 
most part their own and only re- 
ward; his farm was almost his sole 
support. In the autumn of the 
above year, on returning hom^e, he 
used his last dollar to pay a man 
hired to attend his farm, and as he 
had nothing to pay future wages, he 
was compelled to take the care of 
the place into his own hands — ^that is, 
as he states it, "thrash the grain, 
haul and cut the wood, build the 
fires and feed the stock; all this 
work he did besides the care of the 
churches. The whole was deemxed a 
part of the Christian warfare from 
which there was no discharge.'' In 
16 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

connection with this period an inter- 
esting incident is related. One even- 
ing (and this was tw^o years before 
the first thought of going to England 
occurred to him), having been at 
work all day on his farm, he wrote a 
letter to a friend in the East — Rev. 
Dr. Jarvis, of Boston — in answer to 
one of inquiry regarding the con- 
dition of the Church in Ohio. This 
letter (wherein, although with some 
hesitation, he m.ade a plain statement 
of his discouragements) became a lit- 
tle marked with blood from a fresh 
cut in the Bishop's hand, for which 
he apologized by saying he had just 
come in from his f arm-v/ork to write 
it. This friend afterward, in answ^er 
to inquiries from one of the Scottish 
Bishops, named McFarlane, respect- 
ing the condition of the Church in 
America, forwarded with his own, 
to explain affairs in Ohio, Bishop 
Chase's letter just as it had come 
17 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

from the latter's hands. The daugh- 
ter of this Scottish Bishop (Miss Duff 
McFarlane) was then in England, at 
the death-bed of a gentleman named 
John Bowdler, when she received a 
letter from her father, enclosing that 
written by Bishop Chase. She read 
the letter to the dying man, and was 
directed by him to take from his 
drawer a purse containing ten g-uin- 
eas, and by the first convenient op- 
portunity send it to the Ohio Bishop. 
When the latter was in England he 
was invited to breakfast at the home 
of one of Miss McFarlane's relatives, 
on which occasion he was astonished 
to see that lady produce his blood- 
marked Worthington letter, inquir- 
ing if he were its author, and then 
hand him the ten guineas which it 
had won from a dying man. 

Another of many interesting inci- 
dents associated with Bishop Chase's 
residence at Worthington, was his 
18 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

act in freeing a negro bought by him 
many years previous (in 1808), while 
stationed at New Orleans. This 
negro, Jack, was purchased for five 
hundred dollars as a house servant, 
but, after five months' service, ran 
away and went, as vv^as supposed, to 
England. Bishop Chase had long 
endeavored to forget his loss, when, 
some years after settling at Worth- 
ington, he received a letter from a 
friend at New Orleans, telling him 
of the negro's return, arrest, identi- 
fication, and imprisonment, and say- 
ing that he now awaited the arrival 
of the legal powers, to be sold for 
the benefit of his master. ''This 
news," writes the Bishop, ''put a new 
face on an old picture, every feature 
of which the writer had been en- 
deavoring to forget for eleven years. 
And now he had reasons, peculiar to 
his condition, for dismissing it en- 
tirely from his mind; for although 
19 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

his once owning the slave Jack, Hke 
that of Philemon and other primitive 
Christians, was the result of provi- 
dential necessity; and although Jack, 
like Onesimus, might be considered 
morally bound to return to his mas- 
ter, yet now, under present circum- 
stances, if his master were to reclaim 
and sell him for money, his whole 
diocese would attribute it to a prin- 
ciple of covetousness, the great idol 
which, at the present day, all are so 
much inclined to worship, and thus 
his usefulness in Ohio would be de- 
stroyed forever. And though this 
tyrant — the love of money — rules 
over the hearts of so many, yet all 
are very jealous of the affections of 
the clergy in this respect, and fain 
would starve their bodies to save 
their souls. The writer saw, or 
thought he saw, it would be so here; 
for though his diocese gave him 
nothing to live on, yet were he to re- 
20 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

claim his servant Jack, or even to 
sue for the money v/hich the New 
Orleans Church owed him, and which 
they have since, in 1840, so honor- 
ably paid him (fifteen hundred dol- 
lars), all would have fallen on his char- 
acter without mercy, and he would 
have labored among them in vain. 
Therefore, with a full determination 
to bury the whole matter in oblivion, 
he wrote to his friends to emancipate 
his servant Jack, and let himi go 
whithersoever he pleased; that if he 
would pay his prison fees and other 
costs of suit, it would be all his mas- 
ter wanted." This emancipation 
act, was apparently the result, cer- 
tainly, of a pretty strong chain of 
logic, and perhaps, privately, the 
good Bishop did not credit himself 
with any special liberality in conse- 
quence. He adds, however, in mak- 
ing the record: "And why, the reader 
will ask, has this grave of oblivion 
21 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

been disturbed here? Why not suf- 
fer Jack to rest in his quiet bed? 
The answer is, because there was 
more in this than appears. Jack be- 
comes hereafter, in this history of the 
writer's Hfe, an important person- 
age, and proves, however insignifi- 
cant in himself, to be one instrument 
among many of the means, in the 
hand of Providence, of rescuing the 
writer from great distress in London, 
and, by consequence, of enabhng himi 
to found an institution, now the 
ornament of the West." This, of 
course, was Kenyon College. But I 
shall explain the negro's providen- 
tial influence in another place. 

Returning from Worthington to 
Columbus, I passed the Bishop's old 
farm, about half a mile south of the 
little town. The farm-house, a low, 
two-storied frame, stands about a 
hundred and fifty yards back from 
the Columbus turnpike, directly east 
22 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

from the first toll-gate, with a fine 
old apple orchard between it and the 
public road. After the incorpora- 
tion of Kenyon College, and its first 
beginning there, a few additional 
log buildings for temporary use were 
erected. These have long since 
passed away. 

It was at this old f arm.-house that 
the late Salmon P. Chase, Chief Jus- 
tice of the United States Supreme 
Court, studied under the direction of 
his uncle, the Bishop, preparatory to 
entering Dartmouth College; and at 
about the same time a son of Henry 
Clay, the great Kentucky statesman, 
(who was helpful toward Bishop 
Chase's success in enlisting sympathy 
for his purpose in England) was also 
a pupil in the farm-house seminary. 
This last fact I mention to account 
for Mr. Clay's personal interest in 
the foundation of Kenyon College. 



23 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

11. 
KENYON COLLEGE. 

QRAY'S "Ode on a Distant Pros- 
^"^ pect of Eton College" has not 
the universal sentiment of the "Elegy 
Written in a Country Churchyard/^ 
but it expresses as no other poem, I 
believe, has ever yet expressed so 
well, the feeling one has in revisiting 
the scenes of school-boy experience, 
after long absence and the world 
have intervened — when he finds him- 
self, a boy's ghost, in the midst of 
posterity. And when, approaching 
Gambler, upon the Mount Vernon 
road (Gambler is five miles eastward 
from Mount Vernon, Ohio), the dusky 
steeple of Kenyon College was seen 
far off among the tree-tops, I found 
myself repeating almost unconscious- 
ly — deposing meanwhile the long de- 
24 



7T 5C 
= O 

X X 




HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

parted ^'Henry'' (Henry the Sixth 
was the founder of Eton) in the 
fourth line, and substituting the 
name of Bishop Chase, — the first 
verses of that poem: 

*'Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, 
That crown the watery ^lade, 

Where grateful Science still adores 
Ker Chase's holy shade," — 

although, if a statement of the Rev* 
Dr. Wilham Sparrow, one of the 
early Professors of Kenyon, is to be 
received. Science had not, perhaps, 
the most assured reason for grati- 
tude in this case. Professor Spar- 
row wrote, that Bishop Chase, upon 
one occasion, when the propriety of 
getting philosophical and scientific 
apparatus was urged by a Kentucky 
gentleman who had two sons in the 
college, answered som.ewhat emphat- 
ically that Science was not the object 
of the institution. And certainly 
Science was not an original object in 
25 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

the foundation of Kenyon College; 
it was Religion — the college as a sec- 
ular institution was an after-thought 
and secondary. Science, to be ad- 
mitted, must minister to Religion. 

Five years after his consecration, 
Bishop Chase found himself in a dio- 
cese which was as yet a wide wilder- 
ness, with but five or six clergj^ in 
all; and, after an appeal to the East- 
ern Church for Episcopal mission- 
aries, failed to have his hands lifted 
up and strengthened. He was dis- 
heartened. The graduates of East- 
ern colleges and of the General 
Episcopal Theological Seminary, at 
New York, did not indicate any dis- 
position, while they could have good 
livings and pleasant churches near 
home, to venture into wild lands, 
and few young men could be sent 
from the struggling West to the 
East for education as ministers; the 
few who went were also, it appears, 
26 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

disposed to remain. There seemed 
little hope to the first Western 
Bishop, zealous for the Church, when 
one of his addresses to the Ohio 
Convention of six presbyters and 
deacons was noticed favorably in a 
prominent British Church organ. 
This circumstance, to which his at- 
tention was called by his son, also 
named Philander* (who had previous- 
ly been a teacher in the Worthington 
seminary, but was recently ordained 
a minister, and was soon to die of a 
consumption with which he was then 
ill), at once suggested to him the 
feasibility of a Theological Seminary 
in Ohio, for the education of a min- 
istry to the manor born, and also a 
personal mission to England for the 
purpose of soliciting aid therefor. 
The thought took immediate shape 
in action; — Bishop Chase m^ade up 

^This was a son by his first wife, Mary 
Fay, who died May 5, 1818. 

27 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

his mind to start for England the 
coming autumn, it being then the 
middle of June. As preliminary, 
however, he addressed a circular 
letter to the American Bishops, ad- 
vising them of his plan, and asking 
their sympathy and countenance in 
carrying it out. He also asked the 
prayers of the Church for his suc- 
cess. Before receiving answers to 
his circular, he started with his fam- 
ily from Cincinnati (where he was 
then temporarily residing as Presi- 
dent of the Cincinnati College) in his 
private carriage — himself the coach- 
man, for he could afford no other — 
and so journeyed eight hundred miles 
to Kingston, New York, where his 
family was to remain with relatives 
during his absence in Europe. 

Arriving at Kingston, he found a 

letter from Bishop Hobart, of New 

York, emphatically discouraging his 

zealous purpose — arguing its impro- 

28 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

priety, proclaiming its object unnec- 
essary and uncalled for, asserting 
the prior claim of the General Sem- 
inary to help from abroad, if any 
were to be solicited, and indicating 
plainly his determination to oppose 
Bishop Chase's efforts (if he should 
persist in m_aking them) in England, 
whither he was himself expecting to 
start at nearly the same time. This 
was a sort of spiritual bombshell, 
with the fuse manifestly burning, 
to Bishop Chase's nearest friends 
and relatives. He was made of 
other stuff, how^ever, and did not 
change his mind. Tv/o other letters 
— fromi Bishops Ravenscroft and 
Bowen — were received, approving his 
purpose and wishing him God-speed; 
other Bishops v/ere silent, and these 
were presumed to be (as Bishop 
Hobart had informed him, indeed, 
that they were) against him. Bishop 
Chase's will was unmoved — he was 
29 



BOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

determined to have his way. ^^At 
length/' he writes, '^came the 1st of 
October, the day fixed on while in 
Ohio for his embarkation. There 
was one clergyman in New York 
who ventured to accompany him to 
the ship, for whom in remembrance 
of this good deed he will never cease 
to pray. They walked together, 
while his wife and invalid son rode 
to White Hall in a coach, in which 
he embraced for the last time on 
earth his darling son. . . . Soon 
the anchor vv^-as up and the ship at 
sea. All the passengers seemed 
happy, and the writer tried to feel 
so; but the remembrance of what he 
had left behind — his sick son, his 
anxious wife, his helpless children, 
his suffering diocese, and his angry 
friends— forbade; and, when he looked 
on the waters, he knew not who, if 
any, would welcome him with their 
greeting; but he was well assured 
30 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

who would attempt to drive him 
from the English shores, for from 
his own lips he heard the promise." 
This last expression doubtless refers 
to a personal interview with Bishop 
Hobart, whose name is only indicated 

by a dash (" '') in Bishop Chase's 

autobiography. He had previously 
requested the prayers of the Church 
for a person going to sea, he tells us, 
adding: "In this he was denied — on 
what principle he never asked.'' 

Bishop Chase landed in England 
early in November, 1823, and at 
once found the air full of ill-omens. 
Every-where he saw indications of 
what is called the cold shoulder. A 
paper impugning his case, motives 
and character, had been printed and 
circulated, and there was a wide- 
spread prejudice against him.. He 
had, however, gained a few friends 
himself, and by means of a letter of 
introduction written to Lord Gam- 
31 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

bier, then of the British Admiralty, 
by Henry Clay (who had met Lord 
Gambler during the Peace negotia- 
tions at Ghent), he was admitted to 
the acquaintance of that nobleman, 
by whom his cause was earnestly 
supported, although he, too, had read 
and was at first prejudiced by the 
hostile publication. Gradually the 
opposition began to give way; other 
friends were won, and finally a stroke 
of Providence, as the Bishop chose 
to look upon it, created a strong cur- 
rent of feeling in his favor. 

I have mentioned, as an episode in 
Bishop Chase's life at Worthington, 
the freeing of his New Orleans negro 
servant, Jack, who, after an interval 
of eleven years, had been arrested 
and held subject to his master's 
orders. In 1824, the British Parlia- 
ment was much divided on the pro- 
posed abolition of slavery in the 
West Indies, and whoever showed a 
32 



f 







td 
X 



I 



"^ 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

favorable disposition toward the en- 
slaved race v/as sure of a large ad- 
herence of friends. At this time a 
benevolent gentleman named Joseph 
Butterworth, a friend in sympathy 
and acting with Wilberf orce, was al- 
so a member of Parliament. Through 
intimate acquaintance with the 
police, according to Bishop Chase, 
Mr. Butterworth knew that the 
Bishop had been in London ever 
since he took up his residence in a 
certain quarter, except during a visit 
to the north of England. "He 
knew,'' Bishop Chase v/rites, "that 
he was there unnoticed and unknown, 
from November till after his return 
in the spring from the north, and he 
had thought little of him because 
others did so. 'And how,' the reader 
will ask, 'came Mr. Butterworth to 
think otherwise of the neglected be- 
ing living in No. 10 Furtherstone 
Buildings, High Holborn?' Simply 
33 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

because Dr. Robert Dov/, of New 
Orleans, came to tov/n. 'And how 
could this gentleman influence so 
sound a judgment as that of Mr. 
Joseph Butterworth?' " Dr. Dow, 
the New Orleans friend, who had 
written to Bishop Chase regarding 
his negro servant, and through whom 
the latter was emancipated, had 
started to make his home in his 
native land, Scotland. Wishing to 
invest some funds, while stopping in 
London on his way, he had consulted 
Joseph Butterworth, and in the con- 
versation which followed Mr. Butter- 
worth had inquired, since Dr. Dow 
had come from America, whether he 
knew Bishop Chase. Yes, Bishop 
Chase had once been his pastor at 
New Orleans. Then as to his real 
character? '^Always good,'' was the 
answer; — ^why was it questioned? 
He then learned of Bishop Chase's 
presence in England, and of the 
34 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

peculiar neglect shown him. Dr. 
Dow expressed surprise. Mr. But- 
terworth observed that there must 
be something singular in this gentle- 
man, or he would not have remained 
voluntarily in the position wiierein 
he v/as regarded by the public— 
Bishop Chase, in order to keep the 
peace of the Church, having stoic- 
ally refrained from ansv/ering the 
charges printed and circulated to his 
prejudice. Dr. Dow replied that he 
never knew anything singular in 
Bishop Chase except in the case of 
his emancipating a yellow slave, add- 
ing that he hardly presumed that 
would hurt him in England, although 
in New Orleans it had been consid- 
ered foolish as well as singular. 
Doctor Dow then related to Mr. But- 
terworth the story of the escaped 
house-servant, and of his emxancipa- 
tion by Bishop Chase. This gained 
the Bishop a sudden tide of friend- 
35 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

ship and favor, which was unac- 
countable until some time after, 
when a letter from his old New 
Orleans physician shed light upon it. 
In this way, according to the Bishop's 
interpretation of events, the negro, 
Jack, became a founder — or a power- 
ful instrument and lever in the 
foundation — of Kenyon College. Mr. 
Butterwoth had sought Bishop Chase, 
invited him to his house, introduced 
him to influential friends, and the 
Ohio Church-College stock was at 
once popular. Miss McFarlane, 
the Scotch Bishop's daughter, who 
showed Bishop Chase his own letter 
v/ritten to Rev. Dr. Jarvis from 
Worthington, with the mark of his 
bloody sweat upon it, also became a 
valuable friend, securing the favor 
of Lady Rosse, whose subscription 
built Rosse Chapel, named after her, 
at Gambler. 
The success of Bishop Chase's 
36 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

mission abroad was now assured. 
He returned to America in the early 
autumn of 1824, with a subscription 
of about five thousand guineas 
(twenty-five thousand dollars), a sum 
much larger in effect then than now. 
Among the names upon the list, 
which included several hundred of 
the clergy and laity, were some of 
the most eminent ones in Church 
and State of the Kingdom — such as 
the Lord Bishops of London, Dur- 
ham, St. David's, and Chester; the 
Deans of Canterbury and Salisbury; 
Lords Kenyon, Gambler, Bexley, and 
Barham; the dowager Countess of 
Rosse, and Miss Hannah More. The 
subscriptions ranged from one pound 
upward to over four hundred pounds 
sterling, and the transmission of 
the funds awaited only the action 
of Henry Clay, who was named as 
an umpire in the selection of a loca- 
tion for the contemplated institution. 
37 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

It had been originally intended to 
establish the Theological Seminary 
and College upon Bishop Chase's 
Worthington farm, he having agreed 
to give it for that purpose; but 
it v/as provided that if another 
more desirable location were gratui- 
tously offered, then Bishop Chase's 
land should revert to him. The 
Theological Seminary of Ohio was 
begun, however, upon the farm near 
Worthington, under an act of incor- 
poration passed by the Ohio Legis- 
lature, in 1825; and in January, 1826, 
a supplementary act created the 
faculty of a college, under the des- 
ignation of "The President and Fac- 
ulty of Kenyon College/' Mrs. 
Elizabeth Reed, of Putnam, Ohio, 
meanwhile offered to give a thous- 
and acres of land situated on Alum 
Creek, several miles northeast of 
Worthington, as a seat for the Col- 
lege, and for a time this seemed pre- 
38 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

ferable in the eyes of the Bishop to 
the V/orthington land. But there 
was a contest of opinion, among 
those now become interested, as to 
the most desirable location; several 
influential gentlemen of the State, 
including Charles Hammond, Rufus 
King, John Bailhache, Col. John 
Johnston, and others, who were 
among the original Trustees — desir- 
ing to place the College near or in 
one of the larger cities. Cincinnati, 
Chillicothe, and one or two other 
places were suggested. Bishop 
Chase opposed his will to these, hold- 
ing it of vital importance that the 
institution so dear to his soul, and 
for which he had already given so 
much in time, patience, and energj^, 
should be beyond the immediate 
influence of cities, on wide lands of 
its own, through which it could have 
a power by right of the soil, and ex- 
ercise a strong local influence and 
39 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

government. Col. John Johnston, 
one of the Trustees, criticized this 
theory, saying that to build up a 
literary institution from the stump 
in the woods was a chimerical pro- 
ject; — it would surely fail and be- 
come an object of ridicule. Present- 
ly, after the Bishop had begun to 
make some clearings on Mrs. Reed's 
Alum Creek lands, his attention was 
directed by Daniel S. Norton and 
Henry B. Curtis, of Mount Vernon, 
to a large tract of wild land in Knox 
county, owned by Williami Hogg, of 
Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and this 
proved so desirable in his eyes that 
he at once made a contract to pur- 
chase it, subject to the approval of 
the Trustees and of Henry Claj^ 
This purchase, after considerable 
debate, was finally approved; w^hen 
Mr. Hogg consented to mxake one- 
fourth of the price of the land (eight 
thousand acres at three dollars per 
40 



w 

M 

O 

> 




HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

acre) a free gift, and, for eighteen 
thousand dollars, conveyed the title 
to the Trustees of the Theological 
Seminary of the Diocese of Ohio. 

This land, occupied by Kenyon 
College for over half a century, was 
a wilderness, but a beautiful one, 
and as healthy and happy a location 
for a college as could be found in 
the Ohio Valley. 

In June, 1826, Bishop Chase started 
with his little army of occupation 
for the chosen spot, fifty miles av/ay, 
which he named Gambier Hill, after 
his fii^st powerful and steadfast 
English friend. Lord Gambier. '^His 
hired man and his little son, Dudley, 
were the only persons who accom- 
panied him from Worthington to the 
promised land on this lonely jour- 
ney,'' the Bishop writes, adding: "And 
must it be called lonely? Nay, he 
felt it otherwise. He experienced a 
consciousness of Divine aid in com- 
41 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

mencing this great work, which con- 
vinced him he was not alone. God 
was with him, and, though like 
Jacob, he should have nothing but 
the ground to rest on, and a stone 
for a pillow, he trusted that God's 
presence would be his support/' 
Gambler Hill, upon v/hich Bishop 
Chase fixed the location of the col- 
lege buildings, is a level ridge run- 
ning north and south, elevated about 
one hundred and fifty feet above the 
Kokosing, an Indian stream, which 
flows from a pretty valley on the 
eastern side around its southern 
base, and, after making a sort of 
gigantic ox-bow in the wide lowlands 
to the southeast, disappears far 
away to the south and west. From 
its top a varity of as charming land- 
scape is visible as perhaps any out- 
look in the State of Ohio affords. 
The valley of the Kokosing eastward 
is the picture of "a smiling land;' 
42 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE W00D8 

westward are even yet the sugges- 
tions of an unconquered wilderness. 
Oaks predominate in the surround- 
ing forest; — how gorgeous with gold 
and crimson I remember them in 
far-back autumnal seasons! Here 
is the picture, drawn by Bishop 
Chase, of Gambier Hill, at his first 
occupation: ''The whole surface of 
the hill was then a windfall, being a 
great part of it covered with fallen 
and upturned trees, between and 
over which had come up a second 
growth of thick trees and bushes. 
It was on such a place as this 
(proverbially impervious even to the 
hunters after Vv^olves, which made 
it their covert), that the writer 
pitched his tent, if such it might 
be called. On the south end or 
promontory of this hill (near to 
which, below, ran the road used by 
the first settlers), grew some tall 
oak trees, which evidently had es- 
43 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

caped the hurricane in days of yore. 
Under the shelter of these some 
boards in a light wagon were taken 
nearly to the top of the hill; there 
they were dropped, and it v/as with 
these the writer's house was built, 
after the brush w^as with gi-eat diffi- 
culty cleared away. Two crotched 
sticks were driven into the ground, 
and on them a transverse pole was 
placed, and on the pole was placed the 
brush, inclining to the ground each 
way. The ends or gable to this room, 
or roof-shelter, were but slightly 
closed by some clapboards rived on 
the spot from a fallen oak tree. The 
beds to sleep on were thrown on 
bundles of straw, kept up from the 
damp ground by a kind of temporary 
platform, resting on stakes driven 
deeply into the earth. This was the 
first habitation on Gambler Hill, and 
nearly on the site where now rises 
the noble edifice of Kenyon College." 
44 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

Such an "opening'^ as this would 
not surprise us if made by an ad- 
venturous pioneer, with the object 
of building a rude home in the back- 
woods, but it appears in a different 
light when looked upon as the work 
of a learned Bishop, — ^\vho, a year 
before, had been entertained by 
British Lords and Ladies, and treated 
with respect and reverence by high 
dignitaries of the Church of England, 
—preparatory to founding an insti- 
tution which he fondly hoped v/ould 
in time be a great center of light 
and culture. What a task-work had 
this one man set before himself, and 
how strenuously he wrought to 
accomplish his purpose! 'It is said,'' 
Bishop Chase writes in allusion to 
this seemingly "forlorn advance'' : 
"It is said, by those not intimately 
acquainted with the facts and the 
nature of things, that the writer- 
might have avoided the difficulties 
45 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

and exposures here described by 
residing in the nearest village, or 
even by taking shelter, for a time, 
in the little log cabins already 
erected on the premises, from one to 
two miles off. Alas! if such had 
been his course, no beginning would 
have been made to the great work. 
He wanted money to pay a resolute 
person to go forward in a work like 
this, if such could be found; he 
wanted money to pay for his own 
board in a village* four miles off; 
he wanted money to hire even 
his common hands and teams, — 
those he used here being the hands 
and wagons usually employed on his 
own farm at Worthington. Now, if 
ever there was a necessity for 
saying come, and not go, to work, 
that necessity existed here, the 
donations hitherto collected being 
all pledged for the lands. The 

*Mt. Vernon. 

46 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

word was said, and, under Provi- 
dence, to this he owes his final 



success.'' 



The first thing done was to dig a 
well; and this reminds me that 
Bishop Chase began his great under- 
taking with a temperance reform. 
He stipulated that no liquor should 
be used by the men employed in his 
building. He feared it might com- 
promise in some way the future 
College. This caused him some 
trouble. There was, soon after the 
beginning, what miay be called an 
incipient whisky rebellion among 
his hired hands. They at length 
sent him a petition asking for a glass 
three times a day, saying, at the 
close: "We think the expense will be 
repaid to the institution tenfold." 
The Bishop appointed a meeting 
with them, took his seat, somewhat 
embarrassed, upon a piece of slightly 
elevated timber, told them quietly 
47 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

the story of his Hfe and struggles, 
moved many of them to tears, — and 
all went to work on the original 
temperance platform! 

In a letter to his wife, written 
soon after his arrival on the ground, 
he says: ^'If you ask how I get along 
without money, I answer, the Lord 
keepeth me. What do you think of 
His mercy in sending good Mr. 
Davis with half a cheese from his 
mother, and twenty-five dollars from 
his father, presented to me out of 
pure regard to the great and good 
work which God enables me to carry 
on? Mr. Norton has sent me three 
hands for a short time. James 
Meleck came one day, and old Mr. 
Elliot another. We have built us a 
tent cabin, and if we had any one 
to cook for us we should live. 
It is impossible to make the hands 
board themselves. We must find 
them provisions ourselves, or have 
48 




THE COLLEGE CHAPEL 
(The Church of the Holy Spirit) 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

none to help us. If we can get the 
poor neighbors to cook a Httle for 
us we do well. Judy Holmes has 
been here for three days, and is now 
engaged in surveying the north sec- 
tion. The streets and roads in this, 
the south section, have been laid out, 
as far as can be, till we find water. 
If this can not be obtained here we 
shall move to some other quarter. 
Pray send me, by Rebecca, two more 
beds and bedding similar to those I 
brought with me. I write you this 
by a poor, dim hog's-lard lamp, 
which, shining askance on my paper, 
will hardly permit me to say how 
faithfully I am your affectionate 
husband.'' 

Here it appears just and proper to 
say, that, if the burden Bishop 
Chase had assumed was a heavy one, 
his broad shoulders were well fitted 
to bear it, particularly as he had an 
efficient helpmate in his wife — (she 
49 



EOV/ THE BISHOP BUILT 

was his second wife, Sophia May 
Ingraham, whom he married in 1819) 
— of whom it has been written: 
**Mrs. Chase entered with her whole 
soul into her husband's plans. She 
was a lady perfectly at home in all 
the arts and minutiae of house- 
wifery; as happy in darning stock- 
ings for the boys, as in entertaining 
visitors in the parlor; in making a 
bargain with a farmer in his rough 
boots and hunting blouse, as in com- 
pleting a purchase from an intelli- 
gent and accomplished merchant; 
and as perfectly at home in doing 
business with the world about her, 
and in keeping the multifarious 
account of her increasing household, 
as in presiding at her dinner table, 
or dispensing courtesy in her draw- 
ing-room.'' 

Bishop Chase spent the following 
autumn and winter in the Eastern 
States, soliciting further assistance 
50 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

toward the completion of the work 
begun by him, issuing there a "Plea 
on behalf of Religion and Learning 
in Ohio/' from which season of effort 
about eighteen thousand dollars were 
realized. In June, 1827, the corner- 
stone of Kenyon College was laid, 
and the neighborhood grew busy 
with the various workmen. In 
August of that year the Bishop 
wrote to his wife as follows: "The 
great work progresses slowly but 
surely. The basement story is now 
completed. The tall scaffold-poles 
now rear their heads all around the 
building. The joist timbers are now 
taking their places, and the frames 
of the partition walls below are put- 
ting together. The masons are 
pressing the carpenters, the carpen- 
ters the teamsters, and the teamsters 
the hewers. The whip-sawyers are 
not able to keep up with the demand 
in their line. The blacksmiths, two 
51 



HOW THE BI8H0P BUILT 

in number, are driven very hard to 
keep sharp the hammers and picks, 
repair the chains, mend wagons and 
make new irons for them, and shoes 
for twenty-eight cattle in the teams. 
Our log house, additional to that you 
saw, will receive its roof to-morrow, 
and, in the beginning of the week, I 
trust, v/ill be occupied as a dining- 
room. The stone gothic building, 
for a Professor's house, must soon be 
plastered. I go to Mount Vernon 
to-morrow for a thousand things, 
and will put this in the post-office 
for you. We have now nearly sixty 
hands, all busy and faithfully at 
work; an account of each is taken 
every night.'' During all this week- 
day labor, the Bishop tells us, he was 
never unmindful of his sacred call- 
ing as a clergyman, officiating at 
Gambler, at Mount Vernon, or else- 
where in the neighborhood. Visit- 
ing Worthington in October, and 
52 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

finding his wife ill with typhoid 
fever, he feels the necessity of leav- 
ing her (convalescence, however, had 
begun), asking her, the following 
evening, in a letter: ''Was this, my 
desertion of you, from my own incli- 
nation? No ! Nothing but the great 
duty of overseeing what God hath so 
miraculously put into my hands 
could have persuaded me to do this. 
Even as it is, I feel a pang which I 
can not describe to you. My eyes 
fill with tears when I think how I 
left you in sickness. But God's will 
be done! My exile here is the re- 
sult of this submission." 

Soon after he sees the good policy 
of building a saw-mill — whip-saw- 
yers were not sufficient, and the 
only saw-miller in the vicinity de- 
manded exorbitant prices for lum- 
ber. The workmen approve, and 
the work is begun at once, all hands 
assisting. A dam is nearly com^- 
53 



now THE BISHOP BUILT 

pleted, a long mill-race across a neck 
of low land (v/here a bend of the 
stream has formed the great ox-bow 
already mentioned) is commenced. 
The news of this extravagant under- 
taking travels through the diocese, 
and the Bishop's plans are pro- 
nounced rash and visionary. The 
digging of the race is begun — the 
tail-race, indeed, is almost finished; 
but the earth-scraper progresses 
slov/ly. Meanwhile the first story 
above the basement of the main col- 
lege building is erected, on one side, 
as far as the windows. But how 
about the mill-race? The equinoc- 
tial storm is due and dreaded. It 
arrives. The rains fell and the floods 
came. The Kokosing rose to an 
unusual height, and, somewhat ag- 
gravated by the dam, overflowed the 
lowlands. As Noah from the Ark, 
the anxious Bishop looked down from 
Gambler Hill. He felt that all was 
54 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

lost. The dam could not be seen. 
The sky, however, cleared; the 
waters subsided; the dam was still 
there, and the head-race was there — 
a channel of running water already 
— a special gift of Providence, that 
saved a large expense of money and 
labor. "This mark of Providential 
goodness," writes the Bishop, "was 
of signal service in building Kenyon 
College." 

This miracle of the mill-race won 
over to the Bishop's side, it seems, 
the skeptical driver of the local 
stage-coach, v/ho was hitherto of the 
opposition, sneering and jesting at 
the mad college-builder. One day, 
shortly af terw^ards, it is related, his 
carriage being full and the driver 
being seated, by its construction, in 
juxtaposition v/ith the passengers, a 
conversation was begun, in which 
the plan of Kenyon College was con- 
demned and ridiculed, and its failure 
55 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

predicted. This was affirmed as the 
opinion of all in the coach, and then 
asserted to be that of all people 
throughout the country. "The Bish- 
op has no friends/' they said; ''his 
plan is hopeless.'' ''You are a little 
too fast," said the driver; "a little 
too fast, gentlemen, in what you say. 
Bishop Chase has one friend." "And 
who is he?" was the common question. 
"It is one," the driver said, "whom 
if you knew you would not despise; 
and knowing his favor to the Bishop, 
you would no longer speak thus." 
'•And who is he? Who can this 
friend be?" was the reiterated ques- 
tion. "Gentlemen," said the driver, 
solemnly, "God is Bishop Chase's 
friend, and my proof is the fact that 
He caused the late equinoctial rain- 
storm to dig his mill-race for him, 
thus saving him the expense of many 
hundred dollars." 

It is hardly worth while to con- 
56 



UtS COLLEGE JA^ THE V/OODS 

tinue in detail this story of a heroic 
persistence: whatever the results of 
the college itself have been or may 
be, Kenyon College, named after 
Lord Kenyon, was built; the central 
building was completed with the 
Bishop's owm supervision; Rosse 
Chapel (endowed by Lady Rosse, and 
named after her), was begun; the 
College, having been remioved from 
Worthington (where it had been 
carried on m.eanwhile upon the 
Bishop's farm), in 1828, v/as recog- 
nized as a living fact — and Bishop 
Chase was the one man, under God, 
who, against many and great ob- 
stacles, had made it such. His 
struggle in its behalf was a fight 
with the Dragon, and he, a true 
Knight of the Red Cross, cam.e off 
conqueror. 

But, if I am rightly informed, 
Bishop Chase was better fitted to 
build than to govern. No man could 
57 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

have done the task-work he had ac- 
comphshed without something more 
than sehlsh devotion. There may 
have been a ground-work of personal 
ambition underneath his purpose, 
but it must still have been a noble 
one, and breathed the true air of 
religion. Soon after the removal of 
the College to Gambler, divisions 
began to show themselves between 
the Bishop, who was exofRcio Presi- 
dent of the Institution, and the 
Faculty. Bitter feelings grew up 
between him and some of the Pro- 
fessors. Perhaps the Bishop, who 
did not always think it necessary to 
attend the Faculty's meetings, was 
too free to ignore its judgments and 
decisions, and make college law a 
matter of his own personal discre- 
tion. His disposition was not, other 
things considered, an unfortunate 
one in planning and building the 
material structure, but seemed doubt- 
58 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

fully fitted to conduct the moral and 
spiritual institution. I have read 
some of the various documents 
printed regarding this matter, and 
am inclined to think Bishop Chase 
was in error. He was arbitrary, 
impetuous, fierce, and unjust, at 
times. The disagreements at length 
led to his resignation, in 1829, at a 
time when his services in the material 
affairs of the College (whose build- 
ings were still in progress) were 
thought indispensable. Consequent- 
ly his resignation was not accepted 
by the Diocesan Convention. An- 
other year having passed, and the 
state of ill-feeling and jealousy yet 
existing. Bishop Chase again pre- 
sented his resignation to the Con- 
vention held that year at Gambler. 
This time the resignation was ac- 
cepted, — perhaps contrary to the ex- 
pectation of the Bishop; for it is re- 
ported that, on the day following, he 
59 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

shook the dust of Kenyon from his 
feet, mounted his horse, rode hastily 
away, and betook himself to the 
place of a relative in Holmes county, 
called by him "the Valley of Peace,'' 
leaving his family to pack up and 
follow him at their leisure. He 
never returned. After having set- 
tled for a while in Michigan, he went 
to Illinois, where, at a place called 
by him "The Robin's Nest,'' he 
founded a new institution known as 
Jubilee College. A gentlemen de- 
scribed "The Robin's Nest" to me as 
a row of three or four little log 
houses, terminated by a still smaller 
frame building. We may smile at 
the picture, but we should remember 
that stone walls do not a college 
make any more than they miake a 
prison — the learned man, the learned 
body of men, make a college. This 
was the characteristic beginning of 
Jubilee College, of which otherwise 
60 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

I know nothing. Bishop Chase, who 
then became the first Episcopal 
Bishop of Ilhnois, spent the remain- 
der of his life in that State, dying 
there in 1852. 

Bishop Chase deserved the grati- 
tude of his Church in Ohio by his 
efforts in its behalf; and, perhaps, 
there was hardly so mxuch tenderness 
shown to his temperament as he had 
earned by his long suffering, heroic 
endurance and persistent energy. 
Yet, though in effect banished from 
the place for which he wrought and 
fought so long, Kenyon College is, 
to-day, with every stone in its every 
building, his monument and witness. 
A portrait of him, said to be life-like, 
painted on the commission of some 
British admirer and friend, while he 
was in England in 1824, v/as sent to 
the United States, and presented to 
the college. I saw it in the library. 
It shows, I think, some strong points 
61 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

of resemblance to his nephew, the 
late distinguished Chief Justice, in 
his younger days. And I may here 
remark, by the way, that the remains 
or the Acland printing-press, pur- 
chased for the use of the Ohio Epis- 
copal College, with a separate sub- 
scription raised among the ladies of 
the English nobility by Lady Acland, 
wife of Sir Thomas Acland, during 
the Bishop's mission to England, 
were pointed out to me in the back 
door-yard of a little private printing- 
office in Gambler. 

I shall not go into a careful further 
history of the College. Bishop 
Chase's record, in connection with 
it, seems to me unusually interesting, 
and I have merely tried to sketch it 
with the help of his own autobiogra- 
phy, added to whatever personal 
knowledge I possessed or could ob- 
tain. I may say, however, that the 
College for some years after the 
62 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

old Bishop's exit, had a struggle for 
life; and its progress largely depend- 
ed on often-repeated "beggings/' 
(This word was given to me, as the 
right one, by an accomplished gen- 
tleman of Gambler. '^*) Bishop Mc- 
Ilvaine, his successor, also took up 
one or two subscriptions in England 
— the first as long ago as 1835 — and 
several in the United States. 

The buildings of Kenyon College 
are as noble, if not so extensive, as 
those of any institution of learning 
in America. The college building 
proper is a large and handsome one, 
of dark gray sand-stone, one hun- 
dred and ninety feet long and four 
stories high, including the basement, 
with turrets, pinnacles, and a belfry, 
topped with a spire one hundred and 

*Rev. Alfred Blake, since deceased, a 
schoolmate and classmate of Chief Justice 
Chase — born, like him, at Keene, N. H. — 
who, for many years, kept an excellent 
classical school for boys at Gambler. 

63 



BOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

seventeen feet high, in the center. 
This edifice stands upon the southern 
end of Gambier Hill, fronts north- 
ward, and overlooks the valley of 
the Kokosing for many miles. Half 
a mile to the north of the college 
building is Bexley Hall (named after 
Lord Bexley), erected for the use of 
the Theological Seminary exclu- 
sively. It is an elegant and tasteful 
structure. Half v/ay between these 
two buildings, on either side of the 
main street or avenue, is the town 
or village of Gambier; a little to the 
east of which, but hidden by trees, 
is Milnor Hall, designed for the 
grammer-school, and named after 
Lady Milnor, An extensive park 
encloses most of the college build- 
ings. Upon the western side of the 
path through the park is Rosse 
Chapel — built with the endowment 
of, and named after. Lady Rosse — a 
large, low building in sandstone, of 
64 




THE PRAYER CROSS 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

Ionic architecture. Nearly opposite, 
on the eastern side, is Ascension 
Hall, a fine large, four-storied 
edifice, of light-colored freestone. 
This contains the recitation rooms, 
society apartments, College library, 
etc. Near the northern entrance of 
the park, and on the eastern side, is 
the Church of the Holy Spirit, com- 
pleted in 1871, a gift of the members 
of Ascension Parish, Nev/ York City, 
and of their former rector. Bishop 
Bedell. This is built of freestone, 
and is one of the mxost beautiful 
ecclesiastical structures in the West. 
Although it can not be said of 
Kenyon's graduates, as the poet 
Gray sang of the alumni of Cam- 
bridge, in the "realms of empyrean 
day'': 

**There sit the sainted Sag-e, the Bard divine, 
The few whom Genius g-ave to shine 
Through every unborn age and undis- 
covered clime;" — 

for Kenyon has yet sent forth neither 
65 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

a Milton nor a Newton; neverthe- 
less, among its students or graduates 
have been men of eminence in our 
national politics and jurisprudence, 
such as Chief Justice Chase, who 
was also Secretary of the United 
States Treasury under President 
Lincoln; Edwin M. Stanton, the 
famous Secretary of War in Mr. 
Lincoln's cabinet; Henry Winter 
Davis, prominent as a Maryland 
Congressman, orator and patriot, 
during the war of the Southern 
secession; Rutherford B. Hayes, late 
President of the United States; the 
late David Davis, Associate Justice 
of the United States Supreme Court, 
and Senator from Illinois; Hon. 
Stanley Matthews, also a Judge of 
the United States Supreme Court; 
with a long list of clergymen, law- 
yers, and others, scattered through- 
out the country, and having local 
distinction and influence. 
66 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 
III. 

POSTSCRIPT. 

I WILL venture to add, here, by 
way of postscript, that I had 
known Worthington in my early 
boyhood — my father's home being 
five miles below on the Olentangy 
(he once owned the land, including 
mills there, now comprising Olen- 
tangy Park at North Columbus) — 
long before I had any knowledge of 
Bishop Chase or Kenyon College, 
and it was after revisiting Gambler, 
where I had been a student, and also 
Worthington, that I originally wrote 
the foregoing sketch of their his- 
tory, which appeared in two divi- 
sions accordingly. Bishop Chase's 
career, after he ceased to be iden- 
tified actively with my sometime 
67 



HOW THE BI8H0P BUILT 

alma mater, has not so especially in- 
terested me, I will confess. His 
name had become only a tradition at 
Gambler, when I first attended the 
College — and "the Bishop's Back- 
bone" was the familiar name (and I 
hope I have sufficientlj^ indicated 
that he was possessed of a well-de- 
veloped backbone, physically and 
morally,) for a wooded hilltop on the 
road to Mt. Vernon, where, it w^as 
said, he used to lie in wait for and 
confront truant students in the old 
days. Whatever personal interest I 
have since felt in him is perhaps 
chiefly due to the fact that his more 
famous nephew, the late Chief 
Justice, Salmon P. Chase, became 
long after my college days, and re- 
mained until the close of his life, — 
by a happy accident, which I need 
not here explain —one of my kindest 
and best friends. Yet it is certainly 
very interesting to recall that Bishop 
68 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

Chase not only founded Jubilee Col- 
lege in the then wild lands of Illinois, 
but he also became in 1835 the first 
Bishop of that great State, where 
my father took us to make our new 
home after I had left Kenyon my- 
self. Bishop Chase remained, as be- 
fore stated, at the head of his Church 
in Illinois until his death in 1852. 

I first w^ent to school at Gambler 
through the friendly prompting of 
the Rev. Dr. William C. French, who 
had been at Worthington, I believe, 
in the farm.-house seminary, and 
whom I last saw while he was in 
charge of St. John's Church there, 
when, after being a year at Gam- 
bier, my mother and I visited Mrs. 
French at the little Worthington 
parsonage. I had, however, previ- 
ously known Dr. French at Colum- 
bus when he was in charge of St. 
Paul's Church, and I had lived one 
winter at his house there, when he 
69 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

was employed in some editorial 
capacity by an uncle of mine who 
for many years owned and published 
^The Ohio State Journal.'^ Dr. 
French was long afterwards editor 
of '^The Standard of the Cross/' a 
leading Church paper, first at Cleve- 
land, Ohio, and later at Philadelphia. 
It happened that when it had been 
arranged I was to go to Gambler— 
carrying letters of introduction 
kindly given me by Dr. French — the 
very first railway journey I ever 
made was begun early one beautiful 
morning in June when my father 
drove up with me to the little station 
east of Worthington to go aboard a 
train northward on the then round- 
about way to Mt. Vernon and Gam- 
bier. I can yet feel the quick tremor 
of the gently-moving train at its 
starting, and recall the dewy, flying 
wooded landscapes. How homesick 
I was on that first railway journey, 
70 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

of which I once wrote, fondly re- 
membering it: 

— '^Renewed 
Mix my dull pang", my eager thrill. 

'Twas morn. When evening- fell, I stood 
A boy on Gambier Hill.'' 

Since my last visit to Gambier 
many years have passed, and there 
have been, of course, many changes. 
Rev. Dr. Norman Badger, long since 
departed, was my first acquaintance 
and friend at Gambier, through an 
introduction from Dr. French. Pro- 
fessor (the Rev.) George Denison, 
under whom I studied mathematics, 
I recall as very kind to me (he 
marked me, it is pleasant to remem- 
ber, number 1 in algebra and geom- 
etry) — he, too, is long since gone 
into the shadow where is the only 
enduring substance, perhaps. Pro- 
fessor John Trimble, the dear old 
impetuous Irish-born Professor of 
Greek and Latin, (he was a graduate 
of Trinity College, Dublin^ in which 
71 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

we had many friends while we were 
in Ireland,— Dr. George F. Shaw, 
and Professor R. Y. Tyrrell, his son- 
in-law; Professors Edward Dowden, 
George Francis Savage-Armstrong, 
and others) has long since passed 
away, as has more recently his son. 
Rev. Dr. John Trimble, jr., who was 
Adjunct Professor of the classics in 
my student days, and whom I knew 
later in Kentucky — where I was 
married by him — and at Washington 
up to the close of his life about two 
years ago. My old college mates, 
associates and friends at Kenyon, 
Richard George Holland, James E. 
Homans among the rest, — where are 
they? How useless to cry to them, 
as I once did : : 

**0 fresh of face, O blythe of heart, 
Come back, come back, come back ! '' 

They would appear, if at all, few 
and far between. 
Rosse Chapel, partially burnt some 
72 



HIS COLLEGE IN THE WOODS 

years ago, was restored and called 
Rosse Hall instead. Milnor Hall, 
also in large measure destroyed by 
fire, had been rebuilt and incorpor- 
ated into a handsome new structure, 
with an eastern wing known as 
Delano Hall — built with money con- 
tributed by the late Columbus De- 
lano, who was Secretary of the In- 
terior under President Grant's first 
administration, — as well for the use 
of the preparatory or grammar 
school as the militarj^ academy es- 
tablished some years ago in connec- 
tion with it. And, while I have this 
paragraph yet in hand, the sad word 
comes that Milnor Hall and Delano 
Hall have both been suddenly de- 
stroyed by fire (February 24, 1906,) 
— a terrible calamity — ^with loss of 
several young lives and severe in- 
juries to other students. It is un- 
derstood that these buildings will be 
restored. Besides these, other at- 
73 



HOW THE BISHOP BUILT 

tractive and beautiful buildings had 
been added, including Hanna Hall, a 
gift of the late United States Sena- 
tor Mark Hanna. The beautiful 
'Trayer Cross'' also, since I last 
visited Gambler, has been set up, 
between Hanna Hall and the old 
College. On this Cross is carved the 
inscription: "On this spot the prayers 
of Holy Church were said for the 
first time upon Gambler Hill the 
third Sunday after Trinity, A. D^ 
1826." 

But, in looking back across the 
long, misty, many-arched bridge on 
which I have been realizing the 
Vision of Mirza, I do not recognize 
anything at Gambler half so dear to 
my memory as the gray, tall spire 
far-off among distant treetops, where 
the Bishop Built His College in the 
Woods. 



74 



MR. PIATT'S POEMS. 



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MRS. PIATT'S POEMS. 



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The Western I^iterary Press, 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS A 

III ■■'■■■ ■ 




